A group of Japanese college students made a rare visit to Pyongyang in late August — just before North Korea conducted its fifth nuclear test on Sept. 9 — for talks on war and peace with local students. [...] The student-to-student program was initiated in 2012 by a group of Japanese nongovernmental organizations. Among them was Tokyo-based Relief Campaign Committee for Children, Japan, which conducts cultural exchanges.

Hillary Clinton has hinted that she may expand secondary sanctions on North Korea during her tenure, which would mean punishing Chinese financial institutions, businesses and individuals that transact with any entities or industries that facilitate North Korea’s nuclear [...]  Donald Trump, like everything else that he’s said about foreign policy, has been all over the map...

So far, American public diplomacy efforts directed at the North Korean people have remained almost entirely focused on radio broadcasting. [...] It is important to remember that the main focus would not be propaganda, but rather entertainment with an underlying goal to provide accurate, trustworthy information – the type of information can create change, particularly in such a closed-off environment.

The spread of outside information played a major role in expediting the fall of the Berlin Wall during the Cold War era. [...] In the first installment of our three-part series on global efforts to boost outside information access in North Korea, our Park Jong-hong wraps up the BBC and VOA’s roles in opening Eastern Europe during the Cold War era.

Sports diplomacy is one of the few available ways North Korea is able to pursue public affairs diplomacy. In fact, Hong was photographed embracing American gymnast and current Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles during an international competition in 2014.

There was a rare moment of inter-Korean friendship captured at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro when North and South Korean athletes took a selfie together.[...] The photo has gone somewhat viral on the Internet and is being roundly praised for embracing the Olympic goals of building peace and understanding. 

It’s been 70 years since the Korean peninsula was divided into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea (South Korea). It is a story of divergence in almost every realm imaginable: political, economic, social, and of course, cultural. American University’s Katzen Arts Center’s parallel exhibitions highlight the artistic dimension of this split. 

Summer solstice fire festivals in the Pyrenees. Korean tightrope-walking. Solving math equations on a traditional Chinese abacus… and the Mediterranean diet? The olive-oil-abundant way of eating may seem like an outlier here, but all these things share one common attribute: They’re recognized by UNESCO as cultural treasures worth preserving for future generations.